Starting device for internal-combustion engines.



G. C. BUTLER.

STARTING DEVICE FOR INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 29, 1912.

Patented Aug. 18, 1914.

5555Eii mw "o vrrn ss' CLINTON C. IBUTLEB, OF WATEBLOO, IOWA.

STARTING DEVICE FOR INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINES.

LMWAWY.

To all whom it may concern:

a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Vaterloo, Blackhawk county, Iowa, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Starting Devices for Internal-Combustion Engines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in starting devices for internal-combustion en; gines, and the object of my improvement isto furnish for such engines, particularly those which are employed in motor-vehicles, means for easily and rapidly imparting an initial rotation to the crank-shaft, such means being separable from said crank-shaft when not used, and being adapted for manual operation.

Another object is ,to so support and mount the device as to permit of its adjustably fitting the supporting parts of different widths of vehicles.

These objects I have accomplished by the mechanism and other means which are hereinafter described and claimed, and which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure l is a front elevation of my improved starting-device, with parts of the supports therefor in section, and taken on a line c-(l of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is an upper plan view of said device, with parts broken away, and the drivingspring case in horizontal section. 'Fig. 3 is a detail view of the rack and gear driving-mechanism, and Fig. 4 is a detail view of the hand-lever and its connections and means of adjustment, and

taken on a line (c b of Fig. 2.

Similar numerals of reference denote corresponding parts thrtmghout the several news.

My device is of a purely mechanical nature, and adapted to be manually actuated without the aid of any other extraneous force. It may also, by means of my improved adjustable supporting connections, be secured and adapted to fit opcrativcly any ordinary 'type of frame structure of a motor vehicle, and furthermore, when desired or necessary, asin the event of breakage or otherwise, it is adapted to be operated by the ordinary hand-crank.

The moving parts of my device a re mounted in and supported by a transverse casting or body comprising medial spaced apart bars integral witlrend bars 6 and 3?, and a Specification 01' Letters-Patent. Patented Aug. 18, 1914. Application filed August 29, 1912.

Serial No. 717,750.

' spring-casing :2, 8 and 9 being the spaced apart side channel or frame bars of a motor vehicle, 7 and -10 are bracket-hangers secured to their inner faces and having vertical slots in their depending ends, with their rear faces made rugose by means of crossing striations. The ends of the transverse structure, at 6 and 37 are made with mating rugations on their forward parts,

and have horizontal slots, the said slots in said parts when superposed, receiving securing bolts therethrough, whereby the barends 6 and 37 may be fitted adjustably, whether transversely or vertically to the supporting parts of the vehicle.

28 is the forward end of the crank-shaft of an ll'ltelIlZLl-COIDbUSti011 engine (not shown), and is provided with a clutclrmember 29 secured to its extremity, and which is adapted to receive a mating clutch-men) ber 30 on the rear end of a longitudinally slidable auxiliary shaft 16. The said auX- iliary shaft is both rotatable and longitudinally slidable inbearings in said spaced apart bars of said transverse supporting structure. bars, integrally connected, are rotatably mounted a gear-wheel 40 and a ratchetwheel 41, and also a disk 14- adjacent to the ratchet-wheel, but which is splined to the shaft to rotate therewith, while permitting the shaft to slide through it. The disk carries pivoted pa wls 39 which engage the teeth of the ratchet-wheel. Outside and in front of said spaced apart bars a, collar 36 is secured'to the shaft just back oi" its squared forward extremity, the latter adapted to receive the socket part of a halal-crank, when necessary. A short coiled spring 35 is mounted on said shaft and engaged between said support and said collar to normally hold the shaft retracted forwardly with the said clutch-members disengaged.

2 is a cylindrical spring-case for a compression-spring 4, and is fixedly connectedor integral with the spaced apart bars of the said supporting structure, and has its righthand end centrally orificed for the passage of the rod 3, while its left-hand end is covered by a removable cap, the latter cen trally orificed to permit the passage of a plunger-rod 19, the right-hand end of the latter being pivotally connected to a plunger-head in said casing. said head being fixed on the rod 3. The head of said casing has a projecting bracketto whose end is piv- Upon. said shaft between said' oted on a pintle 26 a bell-crank lever 5 whose forwardly-directed arm is transversely slotted to receive slidably therethrough the lefthand end of the plunger-rod 19, a nut 20;

tally pivoted at 47 to a rack-segment 46, on

the side-bar 8. A finger-piece 44 is fulcrumed on said lever, and to it is connected a bar having a detent 45.passed through a slot in the lever and adapted to beengaged with a notch in said rack-segment.

Referring to Fig. l, 13 is a curved rackbar provided with internal rack-teeth intermeshed with the teeth of the gear-wheel 40, the ends of the curved rack being carried around the gear-wheel to form an elliptical body whose side opposite to the rack-teeth is pivoted on a stud 12 to said framing structure. The forward end of the rod 3 is pivoted at 11 to said elliptical rack-body eccentrically in such a way, that when the rod is thrust to the right by the discharging spring 4 the rack is rocked down over the gear-wheel to rotate it to the right. The

throw of the spring 4 is enough to rotate the crank-shaft one or a fraction over one rotation, sufiicient to start the engine.

24 leverpivoted medially at 27 to said transverse supporting structure on its rear side and stretching therealong with its lefthand end slotted to receive the link 22, the latter having a collar 23-thereon adapted to engage said arm when pushed forward. The right-hand part of said lever is orificed to move over the shaft 16 and engage a coiled spring 31 which in turn engages a collar fixed on said'shaft, the spring normally keeping the right-hand end of the lever forward, so that a pin 33 pivoted to its end may enter and engage the wall of a notch 18 in the outer edge of the rack-body 13. Thus the rack-body is locked in its position shown where the spring 4 is under compression. A resilient annular rubber cushion 49 is seated in the end of the springcasing 2 nearest the rack 13, and serves to deaden the impact of said spring and plunger-head 34.

To operate the device, the hand-lever 43 is thrown first back, then forward till its detent 45 engages the notch in the racksegment 46. The connecting parts described cause the plunger-head 34 to compress the spring 4, and the rack 13 is swung up into the position where the stop-pin 33 will enter its notch 18 as the lever 24 movesits right-hand arm forward. The device is now loaded, and held ready for instant use when desired. To start the engine, the leverdetent 45 is released from the rack-segment,

the lever swung back, which pushes the linkbar 22 forward. The forward arm of the bell-crank lever may move forward with- .out affecting the spring by sliding over the rod 19, until the collar 23 on said rod engages the left-hand arm-of the lever 24 and pushes it forward, when the pin 33 is withdrawn from the notch in the rack 13, releasing the latter and'the spring 4, the latter discharging and throwing over the rack to rotate the gear-wheel and shaft 16 and start the engine. It will be noticed that as the right-hand arm of the lever 24 moving backward and before the pin 33 is withdrawn entirely from said rack, the spring 31 is compressed by it and the shaft 16 slid back to engage the crank-shaft 28. Back-firing of the engine does not result in any damage to the mechanism or affect the hand-lever, since the shaft 28 in rotating backward will merely cause the clutch teeth to click over each other, the shaft-part 16 giving outwardly against the yielding springs 31 and 35.

In case of damage or disability in any,

part of the device, the engine may be cranked by hand in the usual manner by applying a hand-crank to the squared end of the shaft 16, at the same time pushing the shaft backwardly, to engage its clutchmember 30 with the clutch-member 29 on said crank-shaft 28. I

The device may be dismounted from the frame bars 8, by merely removing the bolts 21 which connect the same to the brackets 7 and 10. Other or similar forms of adjust able connections between the endsof my transverse supporting structure and the frame-bars 8 for adjustable connections of said parts may be used in lieu of those shown, without departing from the scope of my invention in this particular.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A starting device for an internal-c0111- bustion engine, comprising'in combination with the crank-shaft of the engine, a clutchmember secured thereon, an auxiliary shaft alined with said crank-shaft and having a mating clutch-member for the other clutchmember, said auxiliary shaft being both rotatably and slidably mounted, a gear-wheel and a ratchet-wheel rigidly connected and rotatably mounted on said auxiliary shaft, a disk mounted on said shaft adjacent to said ratchet-wheel and splined thereto to permit longitudinal movement only of said shaft relative thereto, pawls pivoted on said disk and operativa-ly engaging teeth on said ratcln t-whecl, an cecentrically-pivoted curved rack having teeth intcrmeshing with the teeth on the gearwheel, a power-spring operatively connected with said rack, means for compressing said spring and detachably holding it when COLU- pressed, means for releasing and discharging said spring to move said rack to actuate bot-h the auxiliary and crank-shaft together, and connected means therewith for previously moving said auxiliary shaft to engage its clutch-member with the clutch-member of said crank-shaft.

2. A starting device for an internal-combustion engine, comprising in combination with the crank-shaft of the engine, a clutch member secured thereon, an auxiliary shaft alined with said crank-shaft and having a mating clutch-member for the other clutchmember, said auxiliary shaft being both rotatably and slidably mounted, a gear-wheel and a ratchet-wheel rigidly connected and rotatably mounted on said auxiliary shaft, a disk mounted on said shaft adjacent to said ratchet-wheel and splined thereto to permit only longitudinal movement of the shaft relative thereto, pawls pivoted on said disk and operatively engaging teeth on said ratchet-wheel, an eccentricallypivoted curved rack having teeth intermeshing with the teeth on the gear-wheel, a power-spring operatively connected with said rack, means for compressing said spring, holding it deta chably locked while under compression, and then releasing and discharging it when desired, and means for engaging said auxiliary shaft detachably with said crank-shaft just anterior to the discharge of the spring.

3. A starting device for an internal combustion engine, comprising in combination with the crank-shaft of the engine, a clutchmember secured thereon, an auxiliary shaft alined with said crankshaft and having a mating clutch-member for the other clutchmember, said auxiliary shaft being both rotatably and slidably mounted, yieldable resilient means connected to said auxiliary shaft and adapted to normally hold its clutch-member out of engagement with the clutch-member on the crank-shaft, a gearwheel and a ratchet-wheel rigidly connected and rotatably mounted on said auxiliary shaft, a disk mounted on said auxiliary shaft abuttingupon said ratchet-wheel and provided with movable pawls engaged with the teeth of the ratchet-wheel, a rack having teeth intermeshing with the teeth of said gear-wheel,-a power-spring, a plungerdiead engaging one end of said spring, a rod pivotally connected between said head and said rack, a plunger-rod connected to said head and extending in an opposite direction to the first-mentioned rod, means adapted to pull said plunger-rod to place said spring under tension. a lever having a stop adapted to detachably engage said rack and hold it when said spring is under tension, and

means connected to said plunger-rod actuating-means adapted to detachably engage member secured thereon, an auxiliary shaft alined with said crank shaft and having a mating clutch-member for the other clutchmember, said auxiliary shaft being both rotatably and slidably mounted, yieldable resilient means connected to said auxiliary shaft and adapted to normally hold its clutchmember out of engagement with the clutchmember on the crank-shaft, a gear-wheel and a ratchet-wheel rigidly connected and rotatably mounted on said auxiliary shaft, a disk mounted on said auxiliary shaft abutting upon said ratchet-wheel and having movable pawls movably engaged with the teeth of the ratchet-wheel, a rack having teeth. inter-meshing with the teeth of said gear-wheel, a power-spring, a plunger-head engaging one end of said spring, a rod pivotally connected between said head and said rack, a plunger-rod connected to said head and extending oppositely from the other rod, :1 pivoted bell-crank lever one arm of which is slidably connected with said plunger-rod to pull same in one direction only and slide thereovcr in the other direction, a hand-lever, a link pivotally connected between said hand-lever and the other arm of said bell-crank lever, a medially pivoted lever having one end slidably engaged with said link, engaging-means on said link adapted to force said last mentioned leverend in one direction, a yield-able resilient connection between the other end of the medially pivoted lever and said auxiliary shaft, a stop connected to the last-mentioned lever end and adapted to be moved to en gage said rack and hold it in one position detachably when the said power-spring is under compression, and means for holding said hand'lever in a desired position, detachably.

5. A starting device for an internal combustion engine, comprising in combination with the crank-shaft of the engine, a clutchmember secured thereon, an auxiliary shaft alined with said crank-shaft, a mating clutch-member on the auxiliary shaft adapted to be engaged with the other clutchmember, said auxiliary shaft being both rotatably and slidably mounted, yieldable resilient means bearing upon said auxiliary shaft and adapted to normally shift it out of engagement with said crank-shaft, a gear-wheel and a ratchet-wheel rigidly connected and rotatably mounted on said auxiliary shaft, a disk mounted on said auxiliaryshaft abutting upon said ratchet-Wheel, splined to said shaft to permit the latter to slide therethrough, and having pawls & 1,107,407

mounted thereon adapted to inovably eneratively immediately before the shifting 10 gage teeth of said ratchet-Wheel, a curved movement of said rack. internally-toothed rack in mesh with said Signed at Waterloo, Iowa, this 13th day gear-Wheel a fixed support, said rack being of Aug. 1912.

pivoted. thereto, means for shifting said CLINTON BUTLER.

rack in one direction to rotate said gearwheel, ratchet-Wheel and said shafts When Witnesses:

connected, and means for shifting said aux- WIRT P. HOXIE, iliary shaft to engage said crank-shaft op- Gm. G. KENNEDY. 

